Mesozoic Miscellany #14

Newsworthiness
The big deal this week is the fifth installment of the revivified Boneyard Blog Carnival. It's hosted by Zach at When Pigs Fly Returns. Thanks for being a terrific host, Zach!

At Dinosaur Tracking, Brian Switek asked "Where Have All the Sauropods Gone?" The nation immediately got that Paula Cole song stuck in their head.

Head over the The Great Cretaceous Walk, where Tony Martin continues the thrilling saga of the Lark Quarry "dinosaur stampede."

Darren Naish's Stegosaur Wars posts at Tet Zoo have been fantastic. Start here and move on to part two.

In the newest post of his guest series at Archosaur Musings about preparing a Gorgosaurus specimen, Darren Tanke touches on latex molding, part of the process that doesn't get much notice.

Crurotarsi raved about the Safari Ltd. Postosuchus figure.

At Chinleana, Bill Parker provides the definitive guide to Triassic research in 2010.

In the beginning of a series, Mickey Mortimer analyzes the little-known taxa named by Chinese paleontologist Zhao Xijin in a pair of posts at the Theropod Database Blog.

Have an embarrassing story from the early days of your life in the labor force? Jeff Martz will top it.

Twit Picks

• Humans do some amazing stuff. Injured turtle gets a pair of wheels.
• Nice post from Stories in Stone on Neptunidraco: The Crocodile and the Countertop
• Saurian IDs a Pliosaur Vertebra from the Oxford Clay
• The Carnival of Evolution is back at The Dispersal of Darwin!
• As he writes a UK grant application, Dave Hone asks: How much science communication should / do people do?
• Neurologica: Bedbugs and Progressivist Bias in how we think

Tumblin'
I Effing Love Dinosaurs shared this nifty Lego advertisement:


Paleoart of the Week
This week on the Dinosaur Mailing list, Jerry Harris was looking for Victorian-era restorations of Scelidosaurus, a stegosaur. since rooting around for cool old dinosaur illustrations is one of my favorite pastimes, I relished the chance to pitch in. One of the images he already had was this Joseph Smit restoration, from Extinct Monsters and Creatures of Other Days: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life.


Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
I absolutely love a well-executed nature documentary. The finest one I've seen lately is the BBC Yellowstone three-part series from a few years ago. I'm normally not terribly excited by National Park docs, because I've seen one two many that seem to be little more than tourism promotions. But Jennie watched this on one of her recent days off, and knew I'd be super-excited about it. She was right. Each episode covers a season in the park (spring is split between winter and summer), weaving the story of an ecosystem from the deepest geology to the habits of pikas and hummingbirds. It's available on Netflix Instant if you subscribe. I hope more BBC docs are added soon - they're a much higher quality than the overheated NatGeo specials that populate the instant selection.

Here's a typically breathtaking clip.